Solitary Crusade Comes to an End

It wasn't just one incident that made want to raise money for the people of Haiti.

It was the young girl who was eating mud because she had no food.

It was the malnourished boy who died because he was too weak to cough up food that lodged in his throat.

And it was the old woman who tried to get food by rubbing her stomach.

These scenes happened during a 2009 mission trip Youssi went on.

"I made up my mind that I was going to do something," the Woodstock man said.

He founded a nonprofit, Irrigation Without Borders, and began to raise money to build irrigation systems in a country that so badly needs food.

The work comes naturally to Youssi, who has spent 30 years in the irrigation business. His company, Sprinkler Solutions, is responsible for the water systems at the Tennessee Aquarium and the Georgia Dome.

Youssi's idea to camp out on a hill above Towne Lake Parkway in an effort to raise money came about for several reasons. He lives five miles away, which makes it easy to run home. He and his wife, Jennifer, often pull mattresses out on their deck in nice weather and sleep outdoors. And the people of Haiti have been living in tents since the January 2010 earthquake.

Thus Camp H.A.I.T.I., Haitian Agriculture Irrigation Technology Initiative, was born. Youssi has spent most nights in his tent on land owned by his church, . His goal: to raise $150,000. His reality: $35,000 so far.

He has promised his wife that Christmas Day will be the end.

"She keeps asking me when I'm going to come home," he said.

But he has met some amazing people on his journey and says the $35,000 will get his project started.

The Early Years

Youssi grew up in a suburb of Chicago alongside a brother and two sisters. He's the second-oldest of the bunch.

His father was a time study engineer, someone who goes into a business and decides how much an employee will have to produce to meet a quota on an hourly and daily basis.

His mother stayed at home, and Youssi, 54, remembers a simplistic childhood in the 1960s.

"There were three television stations," he said. "It wasn't all these video games and computers. We were outside from sunrise to sunset."

In the beginning, Youssi wanted to be a firefighter, but he got interested in the science of it. He went to Oklahoma State to become a safety engineer with an emphasis on fire prevention.

But when he graduated in 1984, people in his field were being laid off, not hired, because of the economy.

Youssi had worked for a landscaping company in college. He and the owner decided to start an irrigation division of the company.

Within six months, the company had offices in several states. Youssi was transferred to Atlanta to run the operation here. Realizing he was doing just about everything, he figured he could branch out on his own. Sprinkler Solutions was born.

Youssi and his first wife raised two sons, now both in their 20s. The oldest one has been living in the tent with his dad.

He and his first wife get along well, Youssi said. They all spent Thanksgiving together.

"It's taken a lot of work to get there," Youssi said, laughing.

The Mission Trip

In 2009, Youssi went to Haiti on a mission trip. He would encounter many people in need. But a few stood out.

He watched a little girl take a plastic Coke bottle to a muddy hole where she got some cloudy water to drink. She then scooped up some mud and put it on a piece of cardboard to eat.

Many of the people in Haiti have tuberculosis, and the only way to diagnose it is with an X-ray. The X-ray machine in the hospital was broken.

So the mission workers paid for several people to go to another hospital to have the X-rays done. They cost only $10, but "it might as well be $1 million," Youssi said of the Haitians.

One of the people they paid for was a sickly little boy. The next day his mother waved the X-ray around, and it became clear she had taken the money and had herself X-rayed.

"We were hacked off at first," Youssi said. But then they realized if she didn't get help, her children might end up with no one to care for them.

The group was also in the hospital when a mother rushed in with her malnourished, unconscious child. A piece of food had gotten stuck in his airway. He was too weak to cough it out and died.

After spending a considerable amount of his own money, Youssi was left with nothing. An old woman came up to him and implored him for food. She communicated that by rubbing her stomach.

"I couldn't do anything to help her," Youssi said.

Camping Out

Initially Youssi told his wife he'd stay for four months.

Tuesday was Day 262.

In March, Youssi set up camp on a bluff above Town Lake Parkway. He has attracted numerous visitors and learned a thing or two about himself.

He has a nice-sized tent, complete with a recliner. He sleeps there most nights because of shoulder surgery. It's more comfortable.

There's a place for his fire each night when he gets home from work. He arrives at dusk and stays till sunrise.

Most nights you'll find him on his laptop checking email on his organization's website or just sitting with people who come to visit.

He has seen some amazing lightning storms and a tornado that destroyed his camp. He had taken shelter elsewhere.

It has been as hot as 132 degrees inside his tent and as low as 26 outside.

Children have given him their allowance money or proceeds from their lemonade stands. Many people have stopped because their curiosity got the better of them.

One of the visitors was a man with earrings and numerous tattoos. Normally his prejudices would have gotten the better of him, Youssi said. But the two sat down and talked.

"He was a really nice guy," Youssi said.

One of the first people Youssi encountered was Robert, a homeless veteran with schizophrenia.

"The easy thing to do would have been to feed him and pass him on," Youssi said. "But I didn't want to do that."

So Robert built a teepee and became Youssi's neighbor on the hill. Youssi encouraged him to get a job, which he did. But Robert's illness made keeping a job hard. A lady at church took Robert to the VA hospital. Youssi said they have kept in touch.

"He's a very likable guy," Youssi said.

Putting a Plan in Action

The land is there—100 acres.

The wells have been dug.

The local labor force is ready to go.

All that's left to do for the irrigation system Youssi wants to build is to buy the materials.

The $35,000 he has raised will pay for the first phase of his plan. The materials will come from the Dominican Republic, which is adjacent to Haiti.

Once they have everything they need, Youssi and his crew will show the Haitians how to build the irrigation system.

It's important that they build the system in case something breaks down. Then they can fix it.

Youssi said he hopes to raise enough money through his organization to finish the project.

And he hopes that the food grown will help feed people like the ones he met.